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President Barack Obama will not back off proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules on utilities and manufacturers despite halting new limits on ozone, according to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman said that he "was told by people in the White House that they felt [stopping the ozone limits] would give them stronger grounds to stop Republicans who want to delay or postpone or eliminate" other actions against emissions. The EPA's planned actions include regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants, cement factories and industrial boilers.

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The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to lower the biofuel blending requirements for 2014 has temporarily stopped congressional efforts to tinker with the Renewable Fuel Standard, lawmakers said. "I doubt there will be much of an appetite for moving legislation until the rulemaking for 2014 shakes out," said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif. Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council, said legislative action is not needed because the EPA has the power to amend the RFS if needed.

The Environmental Protection Agency said emissions standards for industrial boilers and incinerators will apply to less than 1% of the country's approximately 1.5 million boilers. Other facilities already meet the new standards or are expected to be able to do so through routine measures, EPA said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized rules for greenhouse-gas emission limits at large industrial boilers. The rules require about 2,300 large sites in the U.S. to comply with the set limits within three years, with a one-year extension available to enable the installation of control equipment. EPA said the rule will reduce the industry's annual compliance expenses.

The House of Representatives voted Thursday for a bill that would hold back the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to control emissions from commercial and industrial boilers. Republican lawmakers and industry groups say such measures are harmful to U.S. jobs and the economy and should be studied further. "Enactment into law will give EPA time to get the rules right," said Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council.

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said industries should prefer to work with lawmakers to craft limits on carbon emissions rather than wait for regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. Markey, who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, is co-sponsoring legislation with U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., that would create a cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. carbon output by 20% over the next decade.